Cook's Tour
At Ibiza, a peek at Catalan
By Alison Cook on July 26, 2006 at 10:20 AM
Ibiza is one of my favorite places for a Sunday supper, so I headed to Midtown, starving and weary, after the dog show wrapped up the other night. Rain had brought the July temps down to sitting-outside level (the upside of the current monsoon), so I grabbed a table on the patio.
Ibiza's patio is much more pleasant than it has any right to be, given that it looks out on the usual Houston scene: a parking lot. But there are old Midtown trees within view, and even a feeling of being set apart, because of the fittings and angled corner position.
The first person I saw, greeting people by the door in chef's whites, was Chris Shepherd. The last time I saw this big, amiable fellow, he was acting as "the wine guy" at Brennan's, where he had also pulled kitchen duty alongside chef Randy Evans.
Turns out Shepherd has been snared by Ibiza chef Charles Clark and his winecentric partner, Grant Cooper, to run the kitchen at their upcoming Washington Avenue tapas and wine bar, Catalan. Add to the Catalan team Antonio Gianola, the superb former manager and sommelier at Da Marco, and you've got a lot of talent on board.
Shepherd and Gianola will be partners, not employees, at the new venture, which is scheduled to open in about three weeks in the same strip mall where Monsterville Horton's secondCova is located.
In the meantime, the two are in and out of Ibiza, plying regulars with wines to be featured on the Catalan list and offering the occasional sample from the new menu. Such as: Shepherd's ridiculously good "pork pops," meaty cubes of pork belly glazed with rum, niftily balanced with salt, and speared on splinters of sugar cane. Or amusing, panko-fried ping-pong balls with foie gras inside — our Cajun neighbors would call them "boulettes," and they reminded me of exotic hush puppies. Fun.
Gianola is pouring a refreshing Gruner Veltliner by the glass, so juicy and round, with a mineral undertone, that it is almost white-burgundian. Yes, it will be on tap at Catalan.
And Ibiza's Charles Clark is, as usual, filled with boyish enthusiasm for his specials of the moment. On Sunday, they included small portions of luscious beefsteak tomato with even more luscious burrata cheese stationed on top, very simply dressed with salt, pepper and unfiltered Spanish olive oil. Too good.
As were little fresh anchovies fried to a filmy crisp and presented in a paper-lined basket. Now that is a special worthy of the name.
Alison Cook